Day 29: Islamabad

It would be a lazy day today as we would all rest and recuperate from the tiring drives that we had endured. The boys woke up late in the morning and ordered breakfast from the guesthouse, bread with butter and jam. We had breakfast in the room. The washing arrived in bundles that had been sent to the dhobi the day before, Amjad’s wife had kindly arranged the “dhobi” for us. The excess baggage such as the tent and warm clothes, fishing rods etc, which were not needed for the rest of the trip were packed in neat cardboard boxes and Hamid had his office boys deliver the boxes to the TCS who would ship it to Karachi. This would lighten the load on the vehicle. I sent two boxes of fishing and camping equipment by TCS to Karachi.

We drove to the shopping centers in the late afternoon and bought pearls as presents for the folks at home. Anika wanted to go to the “Hot shots” shopping mall in the evening. The shops cater for the kids with good quality fashion wear such as jeans and T-shirts, they also sell nick knacks for the kids and Anika enjoyed the shops.

That night’s food was at Pappasalies restaurant the delicacy of Islamabad. The vehicle was packed before I went to bed that night so that I would not need to do much in the morning. We would be driving to Sialkot tomorrow to visit Taimur’s relatives and to see the Hilbro surgical factory. The drive on the Motorway would be quite different from the long grueling drives in the mountains.